| Meanwhile Gardens | |
|---|---|
 Meanwhile Gardens commemorative plaque, 2024 | |
| Location | 156-158 Kensal Road, Westbourne Park, London, W10 5BN United Kingdom |
| Area | 1.6 hectares (4.0 acres) |
| Established | 1976 |
| Operated by | Meanwhile Gardens Community Association |
| Public transit access | Westbourne Park |
Meanwhile Gardens is an urban park, community garden and nature reserve in Westbourne, North Kensington, London.
Meanwhile Gardens was created from waste ground within a working class/immigrant district in what was then referred to as "North Paddington". This space had become available following tenement slum clearance and rehousing in the early 1970s. The park was created by community effort in 1976, initiated by local artist, sculptor and engineer Jamie McCulloch, who led a neighbourhood group to resist speculative commercial development taking over the site. [1]
McCulloch successfully petitioned Westminster City Council to consider allowing community gardening to use the space instead. While this was being decided in court, the Council issued a Meanwhile Permit to prevent any activity taking place on the site. [2] Eventually, the community won their case and the Meanwhile Gardens Community Association was established. Although the land was now protected, no funds were allocated for its further development as a park or garden. [2] The developing park was named "Meanwhile Gardens" as "an act of defiance", as an ironic nod to the Meanwhile Permit, and to reflect the potential impermanence of the park's existence (due to the continued ambivalence of Westminster City Council towards the project, and the ongoing threat of the space being taken over in the future by commercial land developers). [1]
From the start, the Meanwhile Gardens project was intended to involve all members of the local community, utilising any available skills and helping people to explore and develop fresh ones. [1] The work was begun by a band of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers, using donated plants and materials. [2] Further advice was provided by the landscape section of the Greater London Council, under John Medhurst. [3]
The growing community gardens became a "green lung" within a densely populated London neighbourhood, [2] and maintained its policy of allowing all members of the community to have opportunities. By the early 1980s, partly thanks to favourable funding by the Greater London Council, the Manpower Commission and others, park features and activities included an extensive BMX bike ramp system and an affiliated boating/boatbuilding club in addition to skateboarding, concerts and parties. [4] [5]
In 1981, film-maker Steve Shaw made a short documentary about the park's origins and its ongoing community, which was shown on Channel 4 in 1983. [4] [6]
Circa 1990, the Mind mental health charity took over the running of a half-acre space within the park as "The Wildlife Garden", hosting a range of horticulture and nature-based programmes teaching both the foundation of good gardening practices and the focused, mindful engagement of all the senses with their surroundings. [2] The Wildlife Garden won the UK-MAB Urban Wildlife Award for Excellence in 2008. [7]
In 1999, Westminster City Council granted a longer-term lease for part of the park. [1] In 2000, various refurbishment were made to assorted park spaces by landscape architects Planet Earth, with support from National Lottery funding and from the British Waterways Board. [3] The Meanwhile Gardens Community Association currently operates out of an unleased disused factory building in the north-west corner of the park, simply referred to as "the Factory Building". [8] In 2007, the MGCA (alongside other community members and local ward councillor Pat Mason) successfully fought off an attempt to develop the western end of the park for new commercial housing. [5] [9]
The current park features community gardening, volunteering opportunities, the Play Hut (a purpose-built, eco-friendly community centre for young children and their parents and carers, free to Kensington & Chelsea residents), one of London's oldest skateparks (an open-to-all, free-to-use facility with three interlocking bowls of various sizes), a Moroccan garden, and play equipment. [2] [10]
Meanwhile Gardens has also had a long-term association with public music, featuring space for steel bands to rehearse and perform (the Metronomes Steel Orchestra, founded in 1973 by Phil Dubique and Irvin Corridan, has been the resident band since 1989), [11] and hosting a regular busker's festival.
Meanwhile Gardens is situated on the mutual border of Westbourne and Kensal Town, immediately north-west of Westbourne Park tube station and the Westbourne Park stretch of the Westway. It is bounded by the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal running along its north edge, Kensal Road along its north-western edge, Elkstone Road along its south-eastern edge, and Great Western Road along the eastern edge. There are entrances from the canal towpath and neighbouring streets, with the formal address for the park being in Kensal Road.
Trellick Tower is situated immediately south of and adjacent to the park, a little west of the midpoint. [12]
The Meanwhile Gardens Community Association continues to consider the park as representative of the ongoing local Westbourne Park community, and as a rebuke to urban developments which exclude people who have less money and social status. A statement on the History page of the Association's website, dating back to 2019, warns that:
...the public space in this part of the borough is becoming more and more gentrified – Portobello Road is morphing into bijou shops and branded coffee shops; Golborne Road, with its traders, Middle Eastern and Portuguese communities, is following suit. As space that really reflects the spirit of the residents of the neighbourhood disappears, those residents do not. They continue to live in the high-rises and estates. We cannot have public space designed only for the very well-off just minutes away – in the divided society we live in, we need spaces that truly bring people together in common causes, activities and everyday pleasures. [1]
Beyond its links with West London steel band culture and London busking culture, the park has inspired the name of three music albums to date – Meanwhile Gardens by psychedelic rock band Levitation (released 1994, reissued 2015), [13] Meanwhile Gardens by Dutch folk singer Dick Pels (2018) [14] and Meanwhile Gardens by veteran London punk band Chelsea (2021). [15] Hawkwind spin-off Inner City Unit played sets at the park 1979-1980, several of which included former Tyrannosaurus Rex percussionist Steve Peregrin Took guesting on vocals. One such concert on 6 May 1980, circulates as a bootleg. [16] [17] Reggae band Aswad recorded their live album Live and Direct in Meanwhile Gardens in August 1983, capturing a live dub set as part of the Notting Hill Carnival. [18] [19]
The park has inspired the name of the "Meanwhile Gardens" initiative by British sustainable development organisation Groundwork, which helps to create and maintain community gardens on space that has been earmarked for future development. [20]
Kensal Green is an area in north-west London, and along with Kensal Town, it forms part of the northern section of North Kensington. It lies north of the canal in the London Borough of Brent, and also to the south, within Kensington and Chelsea. Kensal Green is located on the Harrow Road, about 4.4 miles (7.1 km) miles from Charing Cross.
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is an Inner London borough with royal status. It is the smallest borough in London and the second smallest district in England; it is one of the most densely populated administrative regions in the United Kingdom. It includes affluent areas such as Notting Hill, Kensington, South Kensington, Chelsea, and Knightsbridge.
Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a cosmopolitan and multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival and the Portobello Road Market. From around 1870, Notting Hill had an association with artists.
The Westway is a 2.5-mile (4 km) elevated dual carriageway section of the A40 trunk road in West London running from Paddington in the east to North Kensington in the west. It connects the London Inner Ring Road to the West London suburbs.
Chelsea is an affluent area in West London, England, due south-west of Charing Cross by approximately 2.5 miles. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames and for postal purposes is part of the south-western postal area.
Portobello Road is a street in the Notting Hill district of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London. It runs almost the length of Notting Hill from South to North, roughly parallel with Ladbroke Grove. On Saturdays it is home to Portobello Road Market, one of London's notable street markets, known for its second-hand clothes, pastries and antiques. Every August since 1996, the Portobello Film Festival has been held in locations around Portobello Road and, in 2015, Portobello Radio was founded as the area's community radio station.
Trellick Tower is a Grade II* listed tower block on the Cheltenham Estate in Kensal Town, London. Opened in 1972, it was commissioned by the Greater London Council and designed in the Brutalist style by architect Ernő Goldfinger. The tower was planned to replace outdated social accommodation, and designed as an improvement on Goldfinger's earlier Balfron Tower in East London. It was the last major project he worked on, and featured various space-saving designs, along with a separate access tower containing a plant room.
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Queen's Park is an area in North West London and West London, located partly in the City of Westminster and mostly in the London Borough of Brent. Some of the area within Westminster forms a civil parish, the first to be created in London since the right of communities to establish civil parishes was enacted in 2007. The area is located 4 miles (6.4 km) north-west of Charing Cross, and centred around a 30 acres (12 ha) park, which opened in 1887 and was named in honour of Queen Victoria. The area gives its name to Queens Park Rangers football club.
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, an Inner London borough, has responsibility for some of the parks and open spaces within its boundaries. Most of them are relatively small: many are the typical London square, built to service the houses around that square. Two of the larger open spaces both form part of the "Magnificent Seven" cemeteries, being those at Brompton and Kensal Green. The parks are policed by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Parks Police.
North Kensington is an area of west London. It is north of Notting Hill and south of Kensal Green and in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The names North Kensington and Ladbroke Grove describe the same area.
London Buses route 28 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, England. Running between Southside Wandsworth and Kensal Rise station, it is operated by Metroline.
Kensal Town is a sub-district of Kensal Green located at the very north of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea where the Grand Union Canal forms the boundary with the City of Westminster. The area lies four miles north-west of Charing Cross and is part of the W postcode area. Kensal Town was an exclave of Chelsea from the middle ages, through to 1900.
The Tabernacle is a Grade II-listed building in Powis Square, Notting Hill, west London, England, built in 1887 as a church. The building boasts a curved Romanesque façade of red brick and terracotta, and two towers with broach spires on either side. Today the Tabernacle serves as a cultural arts and entertainment venue, including a theatre, meeting rooms, music studio, art gallery, bar and kitchen, conservatory and a garden courtyard.
Powis Square is a garden square and locality in Notting Hill, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. The closest London Underground station to the square is Westbourne Park tube station.
Emslie Horniman's Pleasance is a park in Kensal Town, in the Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London. It is named after Emslie John Horniman the MP for Chelsea who created it. It opened in 1914. The park is the traditional starting point for the Notting Hill Carnival.
Golborne Road is a street in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London's Kensal Town. The road runs east from Portobello Road to Kensal Road.